


Finding Solace in a Bed of Nails

by orphan_account



Category: Evil Dead - All Media Types, Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dom/sub, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 12:18:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19441324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ash is a tortured wanderer, wanting nothing more than to feel alive again. A sudden offer of hospitality might have more than the rest he needs, but will it be enough for his agitated soul?





	Finding Solace in a Bed of Nails

What is a man who has never suffered even once in his life? Perhaps nothing more than a zombie, walking among those who do not just understand the value of breathing, but also treasure every breath that fate allows them to take.

Pain is a necessary component of being human; it prompts people to take action in their lives and decide what they want from the world. It shapes a person, can push them into wisdom beyond their years that they may or may not be comfortable with.

Within that liminal space between acceptance and resignation are those who push past their suffering and attempt to move forward, but also dread it, for they know that the pain will never fully go away. Ash was one of these people.

All it took was one impulsive move for his life to practically fold into itself. The forces of good and evil had both marked him for their murky agendas, their tug-of-war slowly but surely violating his body and mind. The last few years of Ash’s life can be defined almost exclusively by his agony. He was terrorized, disgraced, mutilated and disrespected; sometimes all at once or even by his own self.

Ash’s very existence was a bad omen to all who crossed him. As badly as he wanted to strip away his bravado and embrace the warmth that he knew companionship could bring, he wouldn’t let himself do any of that. He was only left with one option: sex. Joyless, automated, by-the-numbers sex. Ever since the Knowby incident, women and men alike felt the same to him: playful, flirtatious and contorting heaps of flesh. It wasn’t that Ash slept with men for the sake of novelty, neither; it’s just something that he couldn’t have gotten away with in Elk Grove.

He longed for the days of being an uninteresting nerd instead of a mourning phantom, trapped in a cage of scarred meat. It sometimes made him wish that a Deadite would ravage him from the inside, subjecting his soul to a realm that he judged to be less painful than that of the living.

In what he believed to be a decent way of killing time until he chose to give up fighting the Deadite menace, he drove around the country with only his chainsaw and his shotgun. Junk food was his friend and alcohol was his harem. All he needed was a lover; an untainted source for the sensory torture he missed more than the people he’s lost.

* * *

Of course, Ash wasn’t able to shell out enough cash for the horror and sci-fi convention in Salem, which was the only thing that could distract him from how fucking ghoulish this place was. He felt that the whole witch thing was bogus, but knew that the town had to keep the occult gimmick for tourist cash.

Ash shrugged and went to the nearest pub to do what he did best: drink, eat, lament and bump uglies with some equally sullen or desperately horny outsider. As if the world was telling him to go fuck himself, as it always did, he was the only one there besides the bartender. He sat at the bar and rested his head in his crossed arms, shutting his tearful eyes.

“You must be in town for the convention, right?”

“Gin,” murmured Ash, his tone much harsher than its usual air of defeat.

“...Well, we have a number of brews here that incorporate gin. You could go for a sweeter mix or perhaps--”

“ _Gin,_ goddammit.”

“Sounds to me like that’s the last thing you need. And treat her with some respect.”

Ash’s ears perked up as he got up from his stool to beat the shit out of whoever said that. He was met with a man wearing a t-shirt of some supernatural giallo flick he vaguely remembers seeing at a video store somewhere. Curiously, the man seemed more concerned about him than the bartender.

“The hell do you want from me? Shouldn’t you be shaking hands with B-movie directors?” Ash instead felt his own hand, the metal one, being held by him.

“I want to help you. Don’t ask me why I’ve been watching you or why I want to help you. Just let me take care of you, okay?”

Ash felt too weak, too embarrassed to stand up to some wannabe good Samaritan with big brown eyes, neat hair and an athletic build. He’d probably fuck him for a minute if he wasn’t so down in the dumps. He let the man lead him out of the pub and witnessed himself leading him to his own car. They both got inside the Oldsmobile and stared ahead at the parking lot.

“I’m Dan,” said the apparent horror enthusiast. “I’m not from here, so I can’t really give you a fancy witchcraft tour. I do know one or two things about black magic, though.”

A chill went up Ash’s spine. “Black magic?”

“That’s the name of the game down in Arkham. My university has a copy of the Necronomicon and everything.”

Ash grabbed Dan’s arm, nearly crushing it. “Let’s go. We have to burn the fucking thing before it’s too late!”

To both of their shock, Dan punched Ash’s collarbone and grabbed his neck, his chokehold tighter than the other man’s short-lived grip. “Don’t ever touch me like that, got it?”

As badly as it hurt, Ash was relieved to see a real human interacting with him. The way he dealt his pain was raw and direct; no teasing or laughing. Dan’s charred wood brown eyes were like windows to a personal purgatory where he could be Ash’s golden light and hellfire, but nevertheless the one to hold dominion over his body and soul.

Dan gulped, loosening his grasp. “I’m sorry. I get where you’re coming from, but I’m not comfortable with being touched anymore. But I want to help you. I really do.”

“You’re just what I need. Let’s go.”

They both smiled devilishly in anticipation.


End file.
